Welcome back to another Warhammer 40,000 Preview Review. This week, we have a special guest writer, Heath, one of the hosts of the Path to Redemption Podcast. Not only is Heath a loyal Dark Angels player but a diehard Druhkari player as well. Proceed and read how excited he is for the new Druhkari Codex that goes on preorder this weekend, March 20th.
Kneel, mon-keigh, and tremble; know that the true lords of this galaxy have descended upon this world to exact our tribute.
Aloha and welcome to preview week for the 9th edition Drukharti codex! I’m Heath, an archon in free association with Dank LIsts Wargaming, and am here to provide you with analysis of the intel coming out of the Dark City of Commorragh.
The True Kin are a faction that saw a huge surge in popularity in 8th edition, given a wide variety of powerful and reliable shooting options, blistering speed, the Prophets of Flesh ‘meat mountain,’ and an Agent of Vect lurking in every opposing captains command staff to wreak havoc at precisely the right (wrong?) time. However, the first bit of Ninth Edition has been all about durability and holding primary objectives, which requires a particularly patient and ruthless Drukhari warlord to pull off. Despite this, a truly skilled tactician will play their opponent like a violin, deploying a toolkit of movement shenanigans and speed to overwhelm objectives with troop bodies, transports, quality shooting, and pinpoint savagery in melee. It’s truly a masters army.
Today’s preview has kept a great many secrets close to the Gee Dubs vest, but there are a few tantalizing bits we can draw some inferences from. Take, for example, the new “”Realspace Raiders” rule, which gives the starry-eyed young archon a new option for organizing his or her forces. The very excellent Kabal, Covens, and Cult ‘chapter tactics’ (which the Drukhari call Obsessions, cause hey, you gotta have a hobby, amiright?) need to be mixed and matched in different Detachments to create the particular mix of lethality you require. For most factions in the game this would be a big problem, draining your CP just to access the tools you need to get the job done. The Drukhari, however, have two options: ‘Raiding Forces’, and ‘Realspace Raid’. ‘Raiding Forces’ allows that if your army consists of nothing but Drukhari Patrol detachments, then not only do you get your Obsessions, the Command Cost of all detachments is changed to 0CP. This is a buff from the current version of the rule, where you need to have THREE Patrols to get the CP cost zeroed.
But as good as free CP are, most experienced Dark Eldar players will move right past that to our new option: the Realspace Raid. By combining an Archon Warlord, Haemonculus, Succubus, and one troop of each type into a single detachment, all your KABAL, COVEN, and CULT units get their Obsession, and you can select from the Cult and Coven Relics even though they aren't your warlord. The real sauce here, though, is that ALL units in the detachment gain the REALSPACE RAIDER keyword, and your Archon replaces his reroll 1’s aura is expanded to all REALSPACE RAIDER CORE units. This is a big deal. You have previously been unable to provide ranged re-rolls to Wych Cult units, and re-rolls to hit of ANY type to Covens. This will clearly scale in effectiveness with the prevalence of the CORE keyword in the book; I don’t think there is any chance that Talos’ are CORE - but in my hopes and dreams, Grotesques do have CORE, and we will expect to see thirty of them on every table by midsummer. Even if that's not the case, having a beatstick close combat character to provide rerolls to Wracks will be pretty spicy. Remember, Wracks can be taken in units of up to twenty now, and have poison (4+) close combat weapons that will overwhelm Mortarion and Deathwing alike with sheer weight of attacks.
Speaking of that melee Archon, no more supervising Ravagers in the backfield: she will be absolutely leading this raid from the cutting edge. Similar to the Astartes Chapter Command, an Archon can be promoted to Master Archon for an undisclosed amount of points, gaining access to a new rule (Splintered Genius), Warlord Trait, and Relic. Consummate Weaponmaster is a trait that gives all your melee weapons (except relics) +1 damage. You could also equip the Soulhelm for a -1 to be hit and a 5+ feel no pain. The real treat here, however, is Splintered Genius: Once per battle, your Master Archon can fight again at the end of the fight phase. We also see the Djinn Blade return in an upgraded form: +1S, -3AP, flat 3 damage, and +2 attacks!
To provide a (most likely) loyal retinue for your sublime Master of the Dark City, Kabalite Trueborn come roaring back from 7th edition. One unit of up to 10 Warriors can be upgraded to Chad Drukhari and gain a BS2+ as well as ignoring any/all hit and BS modifiers for ranged attacks. This unit will be able to produce a surprising amount of highly accurate splinter or Darklight shooting that will make your cheeky do-gooder Eldar cousins cry foul.
At least one of the Obsessions has been overhauled: the Lady Malys’ own Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue no longer re-roll’s 1’s to wound with poison - they now ‘improve the Poison Weapon ability’ by 1, to a maximum of 2+. Its curious that they don’t say ‘+1 to wound’, even though that's effectively what this is. The unique wording makes me think that the ‘Poison Weapon’ rule may interact with the Wound dice in a way that has an effect on Transhuman Physiology-type rules; also recall from the preview in February that Splinter Cannons are Heavy 3, -1 AP and D2. Poison Tongue Venoms with twin splinter cannons are going to be something to watch out for.
Another huge structural change for the Drukhari is a nearly complete Power from Pain overhaul, which is a continuous stacking buff that ensures any units remaining at the end of the game are howling, blood crazed maniacs, wreathed in dark majesty. On turn 1, all units with PFP gain a 6+ invulnerable ( replacing the 6+ FNP from 8th edition). Turn 2, these units are able to charge after Advancing (verses re-rolling Advances and Charges). Turn 3, the +1 to hit in melee from 8th edition stays, and in addition VEHICLES and MONSTERS can shoot their heavy weapons in combat without penalty. Turn 4, your invulnerable save becomes a 5++. Finally, turn 5, Morale checks are automatically passed, and vehicles with wound charts count as double the number of wounds they actually have.
Couple things to unpack from the new chart: one, a 6+ invulnerable is definitely worse than a 6+ FNP. This will lower the durability of the traditional Prophets of Flesh list, but is in line with recent GW rules design to speed up the game. On the other hand, with the prevalence of multi-damage weapons to hunt Space Marines, a 6+ FNP wasn’t doing much for the Drukhari Infantry so they will actually see an increase in efficacy from this change. The other big thing to really jump out here is that the reason everyone took the Wych Cult of Red Grief has been unlocked to the whole faction. Drukhari can now advance and charge on turn two. The 8th edition codex contained a couple of ways to manipulate and advance yourself up the Pain Table early, so the possibility is out there that a turn one cross-table charge is available. A 5++ invulnerable save on Turn 4 is going to be handy for anything you have left (which won’t be much), but providing that little extra bit of durability on objectives is going to be a big source of frustration for your opponent. Lastly, it does look like vehicles will now have access to PfP, which wasn’t the case previously. (The invulnerable saves are not a benefit for vehicles, since they all come with a 5++ stock.)
Wych Cult combat drugs are also getting an extensive overhaul - you are no longer required to use all options before repeating a drug choice. This is great news for building redundancy into your Cult melee units. A new surprise is that you can either pick one or roll TWO choices of stimulants for each unit! This seems like the kind of thing that would be done in the list creation phase, but I would check with your TO before doing that in an organized event.
All told, the Drukhari are bringing some hot new heat to an unsuspecting Imperial outpost near you! Or a xenos stronghold, I guess. Probably some Chaos fortresses as well. So - watch the skies, and the shadows. I hope you don’t need to sleep!
Thank you, Heath, for this excellent preview review and we hope that Games Workshop reveals some more of the Druhkari Codex so we can read even more! If you want to hear more of Heath's thoughts, especially the Dark Angels centered ones, please check out the Path to Redemption Podcast on Anchor and Youtube.
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